Friends Forever
by ArtistForever
Summary: A diclonius girl befriends Lucy in the facility. But after Lucy escapes, how will she deal with losing her only friend? *Completed* Credit for cover artwork goes to the original artist!
1. Chapter 1

Friends Forever

**I Own Nothing! All Original Content Belongs To The Original Author Of 'Elfen Lied' (Except For Xionkowa, She Is An OC).**

Note: Over the year it took me to complete this story, I listened to the music from this YouTube video while writing every chapter:

**"The Highwayman"** animation by Cherimoya02. _I DID NOT MAKE THE VIDEO! CHERIMOYA02 IS AWESOME FOR MAKING THAT ANIMATION HIM/HERSELF!_

I thought the music suits the entire story perfectly and the video itself helped to influence the story a bit. Enjoy the music and enjoy the story!

Summary:  A diclonius girl befriends Lucy in the facility. But when Lucy escapes, how will she deal with losing her only friend?

Chapter 1: The Facility

I lay against the wall, blood streaming down my arms and legs. Another experiment….another painful, _painful _experiment was over. They had fired that heavy metal ball at me a total of 67 times, and that last time I wasn't able to deflect it., an it had struck me in the head. The curators walked into the room, dressed in their long, white lab coats. I wanted…oh, how I wanted to extend my vectors and rip them to pieces…but I was unable to manifest my vectors while I was in a state of pain.

"Now then, Number 17." One of the curators said to me. "Lets just get you back to your cell."

The curator signaled something to the people in the booth, and suddenly my wrists were released from the cuffs in the wall with a loud sigh. I rubbed my wrists, which were now bright red and stinging. The curators helped me to my feet and, clutching my arms tightly, began to lead me to my holding cell.

My cell. My cell is the only place I can feel truly peaceful. I'm under constant video surveillance, but I'm lucky not to have any guards standing near by. The door opened. The curators threw me inside and quickly shut the door behind me. Through the door I heard one of them say something to me:

"Goodnight, Number 17."

"My names not Number 17!" I cried, hoping they could hear me. "My name is Xionkowa!"

There was no reply. They had moved on. I growled in frustration as I grabbed the towel they had left me and began drying the blood from my bare body. Xionkowa. My name, my identity. Gone forever and replaced by a number. My name meant everything to me. It was the only thing I could remember from my days before I was sent to the facility. I couldn't remember my parents, but I had always assumed that I had killed them at a very young age, as most diclinous do. I had lived in an orphanage until I was about five years old, and that's when the agents had come to bring me to the facility, and that's where I had lived for the past ten years.

I tossed the bloody towel on the floor and curled up into a ball on the floor. I had no bed, no blankets, no pillow. I had actually almost forgotten how those things had felt. I fell asleep that night the way I always did, pretending I was back at the orphanage….in a bed, with pillows, and blankets, and clothes.

The loud blast of the horn startled me awake. Was it morning already? I sat up and stretched just as the door opened and the curators walked in, one of them holding a big plate of mushy substance that was my food.

"Eat up, Number 17." He said, sliding the plate across the floor to me. "Your scheduled for a very _special _experiment at 9:00."

The door slid shut once again and I was left there staring at my breakfast mush.

"A special experiment, huh?" I said to myself. "What's that supposed to mean? Are they going to use an extra heavy ball this time?"

My stomach growled, so I reached into the mush and grabbed a large handful to feed myself. It tasted like upchuck…in fact, I would've been surprised if that's what it was….but, it was food. Once I had cleaned my plate, I just sat there, waiting. Finally the door opened, and there stood the curators.

"Come now, Number 17." One of them said. "We're waiting on you."

I rolled my eyes as I saw the guard with the machine gun stepped into view. Whenever I left my cell I had one of those guys at my tail, not like I would ever try to use my vectors in this place…if I did they would blow my head off…just like they had done with Number 3 several years ago. We walked down the hallway, my arms tightly held by the curators and the guard pointing the gun at my back. As we neared the Research Room, the funniest feeling washed over me. It was like, a distinct tingling all over my body, and something deep down inside of me told me…that another diclonius was near!


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Meeting Friends

Next thing I knew, I was being thrown into the large, metallic room. Unprepared for the sudden motion, I lost my footing and fell to my knees just inside the doorway. I heard the door close behind me. My knees and the palms of my hands burned, and the sudden coolness of the room made my body shiver, numbing my senses. Suddenly, I became aware of that strong tingling sensation again.

"Someone's here." I thought.

Just then, as if answering me, a voice rang out:

"So, are you going to stand up and talk to me, or am I just going to sit here and watch you cry?"

Surprised at the deep, dark tone of voice, I raised my head and could just see through my long, pink bangs…another diclonius! My red-pink eyes widened. I hadn't seen another diclonius since…actually, I'd never seen another diclonius before! I stood and starred at this other diclonius, who was sitting against the wall, arms crossed over her chest, starring back at me through her own pink hair, her fiery pink eyes almost glowing in the shadow of her hair. My mind raced! I had to introduce myself, I had to say hello!

"H-Hello," I managed to pipe up.

The other diclonius rolled her eyes.

"Hey." She replied.

I took a step closer, only to have her eyes shoot up to stare into mine. I gulped, suddenly remembering the vectors us diclonius had…and just what this diclonius could do to me if I made her angry! But, I just had to meet this diclonius! I simply _had_ to know someone who was the same as me better! I tried again.

"So, why am I here?" I asked. "Why are _we_ here?"

The other diclonius nodded up towards the booth.

"_They_ are wanting to study the social habits of diclonius. As if it'll be any different from their's."

"So, what am I supposed to do?" I asked.

"Talk to me." The other one said. "Unfortunately, that means I'm going to have to speak to you as well."

I dragged my feet a little bit closer. Well, if we're going to need to speak to each other, I might as well start the conversation.

"What cell do you live in?" I asked.

"I don't live in a cell." She said. "I live in a containment unit, and I sleep strapped to a table every night."

I started getting a little bit concerned. There was only one diclonius I had heard of who lived that way….could it be?

"Miss," I asked, cautious not to make her upset. "Are you….the queen?"

The diclonius stared up at me for a second…then nodded briskly.

"I am." She said softly. "My name is Lucy."

I gulped and took a step back. I had heard all the horror stories about what the queen had done to humans, why wouldn't she do those awful things to another diclonius? Lucy saw me step away and scoffed.

"Are you afraid of me?" She asked.

I froze. What was she going to do if I answered 'yes'? I gently nodded, ready to bolt at the first sign of her vectors. Lucy laughed under her breath.

"No need to be." She said, raising her head a little. "They have guns pointed at me even as we speak. If I so much as clip a fingernail of yours they'll shoot me."

I still wasn't so sure about the truth in her words, but I took a step forward anyway.

"You got a name, kid?" Lucy asked me.

"Xionkowa." I said.

"Really?" Lucy said coldly. "_That's_ your name?"

"I-I like my name." I stammered.

Lucy shook her head.

"Well I don't." She said. "Do you think I infected your parents with the diclonius mutation so that they could give you a stupid name? No, I did not."

That's right! I had almost forgotten that the queen was responsible for the birth of all the other diclonius in Japan! Lucy was the reason I was who I was…and why I was here in the first place. A heated rage rose up in me. I manifested my vectors and wrapped their fingers tightly around Lucy's neck. I was going to do it! I was going to get my payback for my suffering!

But Lucy never flinched. She only looked me square in the face with a small smirk on her face as if to say 'Do you _really_ want to do that?'. Then I remembered the guns. Just because they were focused on Lucy didn't mean that they wouldn't shoot me if _I_ killed her. I released my grip on her neck and pulled my vectors back into my body. Lucy gave a little laugh of approval.

"You got spunk, kid." Lucy smirked. "I like that. You know? You remind me a lot about myself."

"Really?" I asked, surprised. "Why do you say that?"

"When I was your age, I was scarred to make a kill too." Lucy laughed mockingly. "How many things _have _you killed, anyway?"

"None." I said. "Well…I might have killed my parents, but I'm not sure."

Lucy nodded.

"I see." She said. "Don't worry. One day you'll wake up and you won't be afraid to kill anymore."

"Really?" I asked, a smile brimming on my face.

I had never really seen myself killing anyone for real, but if the queen could do it, maybe I could too. Just then the doors opened and the curators walked in. A few of them stayed behind the threshold, obviously afraid of Lucy.

"Come on, Number 17." One of them said. "Time to go now. We have all the data we need for today."

I turned and began walking towards the curators. I glanced over my shoulder and saw Lucy, surrounded by her own curators, being tranquilized with a syringe. She looked up at me, and that's when I first saw her entire face…the face that would replay forever in my mind. Her eyes were a mixture of ice-cold hate for her curators, and soft-hearted pity for me.

"Hey, kid." She said before passing out. "See you tomorrow."

The last thing I saw of Lucy before the metal doors closed behind me was her curators strapping a thick metal helmet onto her head. As we walked back down the hallways, the strong tingling sensation I had grown used to in that short period of time began to fade away as I grew further and further away from Lucy. But a certain sensation still fluttered full and strong in my heart. I didn't know for sure what it was…but I had the surest feeling that it was the feeling of an emotion I had not felt in years….joy!

"See you tomorrow, Lucy." I whispered under my breath.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Great Power

I did see Lucy again. We were to be part of the experiment every day for about three months. Every day I was brought to the Research Room to meet her. I was always excited about seeing her again, but I was also incredibly afraid at the same time, seeing how she was the queen and everything.

So at first I would talk to Lucy from a safe distance. But as time went on and we started getting to know one another better, I gradually moved closer to her. Until one day, I found myself sitting right next to her, sharing my thoughts with her, and not being afraid of her whatsoever; and she trusted me just as much as I came to trust her.

We told many things to each other. From her, I learned all about her past. How she had never known her parents either, and how she had grown up in an orphanage…until she killed her first victims that is. From me, she learned all about the friends I had once known, and about all the things I used to enjoy before I was locked away in the facility.

We would share secrets, too. One secret Lucy told me was that her given name was Kaede, and that she started calling herself Lucy at a young age to be unique. One secret I told her was that when I was younger, I was taken once a month to have my hair dyed black to try and appear normal. An embarrassing truth, but with Lucy, I trusted telling her.

But Lucy would also tell me stories….stories, of a young boy and a young girl. The boy with bright blue eyes, and the girl with fiery pink eyes. The boy's name would always be Kohta, and the girl's name would always be Lilium, and she would tell me about their adventures. It would be like a series. She would tell me a different 'episode' every day we met. It was so wonderful to hear the stories, they made me laugh, cry, and yell all at the same time!

Sometimes, as I listened to the stories, I would pretend that I was the Lilium in the story, and I would pretend to walk hand-in-hand with Kohta along the beach, or pretend to feel his warm embrace when he hugged me. But then, one day, as we sat there in the Research Room, Lucy suppressed me with her story!

"And then, jealousy and anger racing through her veins," Lucy narrated. "Lilium reached out and with one swift motion, sliced the girl's body in two, sending a spray of blood onto Kohta's clothes! Kohta let out a scream of anguish, attracting the attention of his father.

"Kohta," He said. "What's wrong?"

Just as the man saw his daughter's severed body, Lilium, without moving an inch, lopped off his head and watched with pleasure as a fountain of blood gushed from his neck. Kohta leapt upon Lilium, pinning her to the ground.

"Stop it!" He cried, tears raining from his eyes. "Please stop it!". "

I sat there, starring at Lucy in astonishment. I couldn't believe it! Lucy had just had the Lilium in the story kill Kohta's sister and father! Why had she suddenly turned such a happy and carefree story into one of such hatred and gore? I suddenly saw a tear fall from Lucy's eye.

"Lucy?" I asked. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, Xionkowa." She said, wiping her eye. "I just don't think I'm going to tell you about Lilium and Kohta anymore."

"Why?" I asked, clearly disappointed.

Lucy gave me a cold sideways glance.

"I'm just not." She growled.

I by now knew better than to argue with Lucy, so instead I leaned against the wall and sighed.

"Hey, Lucy?" I asked.

"Yes?"

"How many people have you killed?" I asked.

Lucy sat up and looked at me with a raised eyebrow.

"I don't know," I said. "That story you told me just got me thinking. You say you've killed before."

Lucy shook her head slowly.

"I don't want to talk about it." She said. "I'm not very proud of it."

"I think you should be." I said. "You're a very powerful diclonius."

Lucy was quiet for a moment. For a while I thought she was asleep.

"Lucy?" I asked.

"Hmm?" She asked, looking at me again. "Oh, sorry. I was just thinking."

"About what?" I asked.

"Nothing." She said, lowering her head again. "Xionkowa?"

"Yes?"

Lucy never looked at me. She just sat there, starring at the floor, but the strong tone in her voice told me she was about to tell me something very important.

"You really don't know what you're capable of." She said. "You have great powers inside you, just as I do. Promise me one thing….promise me that you will never use those powers the way I have. Promise me!"

"I-I promise." I said, not entirely sure what she meant.

"Good," Lucy said. "Promise me that you will never follow me, either. I want you to stay safe."

"I promise, Lucy." I said, now almost scarred at what she was saying.

Just then, the doors opened. It was time for me to go again. I stood and looked at Lucy.

"Goodbye, Lucy." I said. "See you tomorrow!"

Lucy raised her head and looked me right in the eye...and shook her head.

"Forget me," She whispered. "But don't forget your promises to me. _Please_ don't forget your promises to me!"

And with that, she was gone, locked away behind the heavy metal door. ... I never saw Lucy again.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Losing A Friend

The strange noise crept into my sound sleep, growing louder as it slowly awakened me, until it finally blasted, on-again-off-again, in my ears. At first I thought it was the morning horn, but after another listen, I noticed that it wasn't. It was a sound I had never heard before, like a loud, buzzing sound that turned on and off again.

"W-What's going on?" I asked myself.

Suddenly a voice came on over the intercom:

"All staff evacuate immediately! All staff evacuate immediately! This is NOT a drill! The underground research lab has been breached! I repeat! The underground research lab has been breached!"

Just then, I head gunfire right outside of my cell. After a few short seconds, the gunfire stopped, and brief screams of agony followed…..and then, silence. Cautiously, I stood and slowly began walking towards the door, afraid of what I might find through the tiny glass window. Suddenly, I felt that intense tingling run through my body again, and my instinct told me that another diclonius was near.

Almost instantly, a figure came into view of the window, moving slow and deliberately across the floor, its head incased in a solid metal helmet. I recognized her instantly.

"Lucy!" I cried, racing to the door and pinning my body against the door. "Lucy!"

She kept moving. She never once stopped or looked at me, she just kept on moving, slowly and steadily. I stood on my toes, desperately pounding on the thick glass, trying to get her attention.

"Lucy!" I cried. "Lucy, wait! What are you doing? Your going to be killed!"

She never stopped. Could she hear me? I tried again, only louder.

"Lucy!"

Nothing. Then, a word slipped from my lips, a word I had not planned to say, but did anyway.

"Kaede!"

Lucy stopped, proving that she could hear me. She stood there, suddenly motionless.

"Lucy?" I asked. "Lucy, stop it! You're going to get yourself killed! Can you hear me? Answer me!"

I couldn't tell for sure, but it sort of looked like Lucy shook her head, then she walked out of the view of the window. I pressed the side of my face into the window and stood on my toes, trying to catch just one more glimpse of Lucy, but she was already gone.

Just then a metal sheet closed over the window, knocking me back in surprise. A voice came over the intercom:

"Tranquilization of test subjects now in process! Tranquilization of test subjects now in progress!"

A sudden hissing sound came from the walls, and out of their pours came a sickly green fog. Startled, I backed up until my back touched the wall as the eerie green fog loomed closer. What was this? Was this a toxic gas they were using to kill me and the other diclonius? Or maybe they wanted to kill _me _only, as I had been a friend of Lucy's. The fog swiftly engulfed me, surrounding me with it's foul-smelling odor. The room began to blur, I felt sick to my stomach.

"Is this what dying feels like?" I wondered. "Is Lucy dying right now?"

My mind was suddenly erased of thought, and I felt my bare body hit the cold, hard ground before I blacked out.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: The Morning After

I sat in the sunlight, surrounded by the soothing songs of birds and the distant laughter of children. The wind blew through my hair and caressed my cheek. On my body, I wore a pretty yellow dress, and two red ribbons concealed my horns. I was free. I knew I was. No facility. No experiments. No pain. My heart swelled with bliss to the point I thought it would burst, and a tear fell from my eye.

Suddenly, my happiness was wrecked by a shot of pain running through my arm. I turned quickly, and saw a snake hanging onto my flesh with its fangs. I screamed as my skin began to crawl and my blood began to burn. I desperately tried to throw the snake off my arm.

"Number 17!" A voice said. "Number 17, stop it!"

My eyes flew open. I was on the ground, surrounded not by the songs of birds, but by the curators. My arm ached. I reached to pull off the snake, but one of them gabbed my hand to stop me. I turned my head and saw a curator injecting a clear liquid into my arm with a syringe. The ground was cold, my body was bare, and the light I saw was not sunlight, it was artificial light. I was still at the facility. I had never left.

Apparently I hadn't died either. What had happened? All I knew was that Lucy had somehow broken out of her cell.

"Lucy." I groaned as they pulled the needle out of my arm. "What happened to Lucy?"

The curators looked at one another. The looks on their faces said: "Do _you_ want to tell her?" My eyes widened and I shook my head.

"Is she?" I asked, wanting so desperately to know otherwise. "Is she?"

"No, no Number 17!" One of the curators said, patting my shoulder as he helped me sit up. "She's not."

"Lucy, I'm afraid, escaped last night." Another said. "She was unharmed."

I breathed a sight of relief and smiled.

"She's free!" I thought.

"But." The curator continued. "She killed a total of 19 people in the 10 minuets it took her to escape."

My smile disappeared. I starred at the curators in disbelief. Lucy's words rang in my ears:

"_Promise me that you will never follow me."_

Tears built up in my eyes as I realized…she had been planning this all along. She had warned me! I could've stopped her! Stopped her from killing so many innocent people! The tears slipped from my eyes and hesitantly rolled down my cheeks.

"Don't worry, Number 17." The curators said as they left the room. "Professor Kurama is organizing a manhunt for Lucy as we speak. We'll find her."

I was left alone again. I sat with my knees to my chest, letting my tears fall down my legs. The truth began to set in. Lucy was gone! No longer there. And the more I thought about it the more I knew…I had lost the only friend I had ever, truly had.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: The Hunt Begins

"All troops report to the flight deck. All troops report to the flight deck."

I heard the intercom from inside the darkness my hands provided for my face. I had finally stopped crying, but my body was weak from the sobs that had racked my body. I knew that it was starting, the manhunt Professor Kurama had prepared for Lucy. I also knew what they would bring with them…guns. Lucy had once told me that she hated guns, hated anyone who carried them.

"All those people she killed…" I said to myself. "They must've had guns!"

I trembled at the thought of the terrible deed Lucy had done.

"Oh, Lucy!" I thought in anguish. "Please don't put up a fight! Just come back, that way I know you are safe!"

I heard the door open. I lifted my face from the black sanctuary of my hands and blinked at the artificial light flowing in from the well-lit hallway. As my eyes adjusted, I made out the silhouettes of the curators standing in the doorway.

"Number 17," One said. "You know what time it is."

I nodded solemnly. With Lucy gone, I was back to my daily dose of painful experiments. Once again I walked down the long hallways, a guard's rifle pointed at my back. We passed a window, from which I could see the flight deck. It was empty. I gulped. A curator saw the worry on my face and decided to reassure me. He squeezed my arm tighter to get my attention.

"We don't plan to shoot Lucy once we find her." He said. "The plan is to bring her back unharmed."

"Do you at least know where she is?" I asked.

"We predict she made it to the town a few miles from here." The curator said. "That's were we're looking first."

Visions of Lucy tearing innocent civilians limb-from-limb flashed before my eyes. I shut my eyes and shook my head to clear out the images.

"Are you alright, Number 17?" The curator asked me.

"Yeah." I said. "I'm fine."

Moments later I was being chained to the wall of the Research Room. I heard the whirring of the small cannon they fired at me from behind the wall. I stared at up at the ceiling as I relaxed into my restraints.

"Lucy," I thought, hoping that by some miracle she would hear me. "I _need you!"_


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7: Sent After

I lay curled up on the cold floor of my cell. The room was dark, but I was not asleep. I hadn't slept a bit in the two days following Lucy's escape. My mind was racing too fast for me to sleep. There had been no news from the manhunt, and it was killing me inside! Lucy! Were was she? Was she harmed? … I had no clue. The curators ignored my pleas for news every time I asked. All I could do was continue to endure the pain of the experiments…and the pain of the loss of my only friend.

I jumped out of my sleepy daze at the sound of the horn blasting through the intercom. Morning? I felt as though it had been only a moment since I curled up into my warm little ball. I heard the door slide open and I listened as the sound of footsteps drew near and stopped at my side. Without a word I stood and allowed my arms to be seized.

"Good morning, Number 17." A curator said.

My mind was still clouded with the sleep that alluded me. I blinked the haze out of my eyes.

"Good morning." I groaned.

My dragged my feet down the hallway. I was a bit more awake now. Images of Lucy passed through my mind. I could not bear it another day! I just had to know if there had been news of Lucy from the manhunt! I sat up straighter and glanced at a curator.

"I'm asking you again…" I said, starring the curator in the eye. He never looked at me. "Were. Is. Lucy?"

The curator continued to stare down the endless hallway that led to the Research Room. For a moment I thought that he was ignoring me again. I lowered my head. Suddenly, the curator spoke!

"Whe received news from Professor Kurama last night." He said blankly. "… The first attempt to capture Lucy failed. We lost one of our men. Another was mutilated, but he will recover."

"Lucy." I sighed under my breath. Why? Why was she doing these awful things? I knew that she had a hatred towards humans, but I never knew her hatred ran this deep!

"We've lost track of her." The curator continued, glancing nervously at his colleagues. "So the professor has decided on releasing a diclonius here at the lab to track her down for our men."

My eyes lit up. They were sending a diclonius to find Lucy? A smile creeped onto my face. Was _I _this diclonius? Was _I_ the one being sent out to find Lucy? I must be! I'm the only other diclonius who knows her! Yes! I could see myself out there, walking calmly through the streets (the sweet, sunny streets!) trying to find Lucy. And when I found her, I would embrace her! I would embrace her and, and tell her how much I've missed her! Then I would convince her to come back to the facility without a fight, and she would! Wouldn't she? Of course she would! I'm her friend, and she would want to come back with me!

I smiled up at the curators, heart fluttering in my chest.

"And...who is the diclonius they're releasing?" My heart was pounding with excitement! I bit my lip and waited to hear the words…

"Number 7." The curator said.

My heart crash landed in my gut. I stopped dead in my tracks, dazed. As if I had been shot.

"W-What?" I could barely speak.

"Yes. Number 7 will be locating Lucy for our men." The curators said, pulling me along. "She will be posted in the town this evening."

I could barely believe the words I was hearing! Number 7? Who was she? Why her? Did she even _know _Lucy? My heart hit the bottom of my gut and broke into a hundred pieces. I felt my eyes burn but I knew I wouldn't cry. I had cried myself dry a while back.

"Why?" I asked, trying to hide the sadness in my voice. "Why are you sending Number 7?"

"Professor Kurama favors her." Another curator said. "He's known her since she was a baby. There's even a rumor going around that she's his daughter!"

His daughter? The Professor was sending this diclonius girl, who had never even met Lucy, out to hunt down the world's deadliest diclonius…..just because she's his _daughter_? I stamped my foot in anger.

"Its not fair!" I cried, struggling against the curator's restraints. "I'm the one who knows Lucy! I'm the one who's her friend! I deserve to see her again! Send me! Send me out to find her! Please!"

I was silenced by the ice cold touch of the machine gun barrel being pushed against my back.

"Silence, you horned freak!" I heard the guard's rough voice snarl.

I shut my mouth, not wishing to be blown to bits. The curators squeezed my arms tighter and dragged me down the whitewashed hall once more. What did _I_ do? I hung my head, letting a small tear hit the floor beneath me.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8: Losing It

I knelt on the floor of my cell, letting the blood running down my face mix with the tears trickling from my eyes. The blood ran down from my head wound, down my face, across my shoulders, and down my arms in one, steady flow of red liquid. The results of another experiment. The towel that the curators had left with me lay at my fingertips, but I never moved to grab it Why should I wipe the blood off? It would just come back tomorrow. I might as well just leave myself covered in clotting, stinking blood until I die!

It had only been a day since Number 7 was posted in the town, but I was still burning with rage that I was not the one chosen to find Lucy! I glanced at my daily plate of mush the curators had brought me just moments before. I wasn't hungry. My stomach had been in knots ever since yesterday, and the feeling made everything especially painful for me…including eating.

My blood began to pool around my hands and I began to feel dizzy. I pressed my hand, crimson with blood, against the gash in my forehead were the heavy metal ball had struck me. The pain was only a mere burn to me now, I had practically gotten used to it, and the area was beginning to scar over. After a while the bleeding stopped, and I took the towel and mopped the blood off my body as well as the floor.

I tossed the towel, drenched in my blood, to the side and just sat there in the middle of the floor. I stared at the wall and once again began wondering were Lucy was. It had only been a day. Had Number 7 found her yet? Was she on her way back? I clenched my fist in frustration. I should be the one out there…and they all knew it! They knew it. This was probably another one of their torturous experiments, to see just how far they could push me before I finally toppled into insanity!

I took a small handful of my mush off the plate and slowly licked at it. I had to eat. If I didn't they would come in here and make me. They had to keep me alive. Alive for the experiments. Alive so I could continue to suffer in this forsaken prison. I took a small bite of the foul tasting substance in my hand…my stomach did not appreciate the gesture. I lurched forward and vomited, spilling my few stomach contents on the floor.

I shuddered and pulled my knees to my chest. My throat and nose burned, and my stomach was screaming at me. My body shuddered with discomfort and I began to whimper. It was all too much! Too much to bare for any longer! I reached up with shaky arms and gripped my horns in my hands. I jerked at them, trying to rip them from my skull and screaming at the pain.

"Get off of me!" I screamed to the ceiling. "Get off of me! You did this to me! You made me a freak! I hate you!"

I jerked harder at my horns; the bane of my existence, the very reason I was banished to this awful place, trying desperately to rid myself of them.

"I hate you!" I screamed at my very existence. Tears began falling down my face. "I hate you! … I hate you! … I…hate…"

I gave up my fight and let my hands fall limply to my sides. My head fell back on my shoulders and I sobbed, projecting my sorrow into the air above. The room spun, I swayed like a flower in the breeze, and then I feel to the floor in a deep sleep.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9: Useless

The shrill blast of the horn screeched through the intercom. I was ripped from my sleep by the horn, and my pent up emotions caused me to scream at the sound. My eyes flew open and I lay there on the floor, shivering with fear and the cold of the room. I felt as though I had woken from a horrible nightmare, only I knew that last night's events were not a dream. A strange sensation clung to my cheeks. I brushed my fingers over my face, feeling the thin crust that had formed in strands down my face. Dried tears. Had I been crying?

I sat up and hugged my shoulders. The room had been cleaned while I slept, and the room smelled of floor cleaner and bleach. My head was foggy, and my vision was blurred with tears that were never shed. Suddenly I heard shouting from outside the door. I lifted my head and listened.

"Hurry!….Move it!" Was all I could make out from across the room. I stood and slowly creped to the door. I pressed my ear against the door. The voices became much clearer.

"What's going on?" I heard a curator shout. "What's happened?"

"Its Number 7!" Another shouted. "Lucy attacked her! She's in critical condition!"

"What should we do?"

"I don't know, Professor Kurama said there's not much we can do for her."

"But we still need her for deflection research!"

"Quiet! The Professor's on the line! …. Yes, Sir? ….Yes?…But we…I understand…Yes, sir. Thank you. ….. It's too late. The Professor has labeled Number 7 as useless. She's being terminated as we speak."

My heart pounded in my chest. I slowly backed away from the door. Termination? What did they mean? Is that what they did to "useless" diclonius? Termination. Useless. The words echoed in my head. What would happen to me if they found _me_ useless? Would they terminate me as well? No, I could never be useless. I endured the experiments every day and never complained. They would never see me as useless.

Suddenly I remembered how I vomited the night before. My eyes grew wide and I felt sweat gather on my lip. Wait. Was I getting sick? Are sick diclonius considered useless? I gulped, feeling the burn in my throat the vomit had left. Fear seized me and I felt sick. I bit my lip. I wouldn't vomit again. I wasn't sick! I wasn't sick! I wasn't sick! I wasn't _useless_!

The shouts faded away outside. I sat perfectly still, afraid that if I moved too much I would vomit again as fear and worry rocked my stomach. After what seemed like an eternity, the door slid open and in walked my white-coated curators. I glared at them, but then looked away. I held out my hands and waited for them to take them. Suddenly I cried out in pain! I snapped my head around and touched the bleeding cut on my side, a small cut. Not serious, but painful! I slowly gazed up at the curators. They were all gathered at the doorway, and a guard stood in front of them…a pellet gun pointed at me. Pellet guns, non-lethal weapons used to subdue hostile diclonius.

I gritted my teeth and slowly pulled my hand away from the cut on my side. There was blood on my fingers. The curators must have seen the blood, because the guard stepped aside and they quickly entered the room. Two men with crushing hands seized my arms and pulled them behind my back. I was yanked to my feet and someone pushed me from behind to get me going.

I glanced around at the curators, who were keeping more of a distance away from me than normal. I rolled my eyes. They were afraid of me now, more than they had been before. They had never used a pellet gun on me before because I had always been submissive and quiet; but after my little outburst a few days ago, they must've thought I was becoming rebellious and are now using weapons against me to ensure I won't lash out. All it takes is a painful scratch for a diclonius to be rendered without her vectors.

They needn't not worry about me. I wasn't stupid. I knew better than to use my vectors with a machine gun aimed at my head. As they shoved me out into the hallway, I asked:

"So what happened to Number 7?"

The curators stared at me.

"Lucy attacked her, didn't she?"

A lady curator sighed. "Earlier today Number 7 was rushed to our clinic, yes. Lucy attacked her in the town when the two met. Tore her limbs off."

I shuddered, and my heart quivered. These attacks were getting worse by the day. I was scared for Lucy, for my friend.

"Will she be alright?" I asked, even though I knew what the answer was.

The lady curator ignored me, so another answered. "No. No she won't. She was terminated an hour ago. Professor Kurama did it himself."

Figures. The diclonius girl who had _never_ met Lucy before and who _failed_ to bring her back, got the honor of dieing in the arms of someone who cares for her. While I, the one who is _friends_ with Lucy, stays here alone in this facility. _Figures!_

"You see?" I said slowly, glaring at the curators from behind my pink bangs. "I told you I should've gone after Lucy. She _knows_ me, she would've come without a fight if _I _had gone!"

"If _you _had gone, Number 17, then _you_ would be the one being euthanized." A curator said. "And we need you here for research. You're very important to our studies!"

"Oh, sure." I hissed in my thoughts. "What studies? To see just how cruel you can be to me?"

"Of course." I said, lowering my head in false submission, and I let them take me away.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10: Number 35

I stared into the maul of the tiny cannon, waiting for the metal ball to fly at me and crash into my skull. The canon moved, I shifted in my shackles. The cannon whirred from its place on the wall, and I braced for impact. Suddenly the loud whirring died down to a small hum. I raised an eyebrow. What? Just then the intercom beeped to life:

"All experiments have been canceled. Initiating lock down on the underground research lab. Please return all test subjects to their holding cells immediately!"

There was a pop of static and the intercom was silent, and so was the research lab. I looked about me, waiting to hear the voices of my curators or some sort of clue to what was going on. Why had they canceled the experiments? I got a familiar sick feeling in the pit of my stomach.

I jumped as the metal door hissed open, letting in my curators. They didn't look right. They're faces usually never held emotion, just cold, blank stares. But now, their eyes were wide and they were moving quickly like a hunted deer. I smiled mutely, it was so strange to see them actually appear to be human. The wall sighed and released my wrists from the cuffs. I stood and steadied myself on numb feet. The curators kept their distance from me, as they had been doing these past weeks. I turned my shoulder to them and awaited the sting of the pellet against my skin. Instead my arms were snatched up and pulled painfully behind me.

Startled, I opened my mouth to say something, but the guard pointed a loaded machine gun at me and snarled: "Don't you dare say a word, or I'll blow that smart mouth clean off your face!" They hadn't subdued me? They must've been in a pretty big hurry to bypass subduing _me_! I was considered a hostile diclonius now. Was something the matter? Did it have something to do with Lucy? The sick feeling increased. The curators didn't even look at me, but they kept murmuring to each other in voices so soft I could not understand them. They led, no, pulled me out the door and took off down the hall so fast we were practically running!

The guard followed us closely, keeping his gun aimed at my head. I stayed very still as I was rushed along, my eyes the only thing moving as fast as my mind was. I followed other curators who passed us with my eyes. They too seemed frantic, almost panicked. Every time we passed someone in the halls my curators would move me along faster, as if afraid that I would attack any human being I saw. Every now and then I would sense another diclonius nearby, but I never saw them. I heard shouts and gruff commands from guards. I grew afraid. I had never seen so much activity in the facility before! Something was definitely wrong!

We passed through a hallway I had never been down before. The curators seemed especially uneasy in this hallway, and we were now traveling at a racing pace. I suddenly became aware of a very strong tingling sensation that came over my body, an achingly familiar feeling. But this presence, although I could not see it, I could sense that it was very powerful and menacing…not at all like Lucy's presence. Lucy's presence! Oh, how I longed to feel that familiar sensation again! There was a large door on the wall to our left. As we passed it, the door flung open and a curator raced out screaming at the top of his voice. My eyes grew wide when I saw that his pure white lab coat was splattered with blood! I quickly shifted my gaze to the door and just before it closed, I caught a glimpse of the room inside. There was a small diclonius girl, much younger than me, levitating off the ground…surrounded by hundreds, maybe thousands, of slashing vectors! I gasped quietly and shut my eyes as I saw the lower half of a curator's body lying at her feet! As we exited the hallway seconds later I heard a loud explosion come from behind the door followed by the agonized scream of a little girl.

Suddenly, just as we approached my cell, the intercom popped to life again: "All staff please report to the upper levels at this time. We are now releasing Number 35 from her containment unit. I repeat! We are now releasing Number 35 from her containment unit! All staff please report to the upper levels at this time!" Wait! Number 35? I had heard of her before! The curators had told me years ago that she was believed to be the most powerful diclonius on the planet! They told me that she is even more powerful then the queen! The queen. Lucy! Wait, this all meant something! I squinted my eyes as I tried to put the pieces together in my head. They were releasing Number 35, just as they did Number 7. Number 7 was released so she could locate Lucy and bring her back, but she was k-killed (I shuddered at the word) by Lucy. Why could they not just send another average diclonius (like me) out to find Lucy? After all, the plan was to find Lucy and safely bring her back to the…. Wait! Had the plan changed? Why were they sending out the most dangerous diclonius alive after Lucy?

The sudden realization hit me like a brick! My eyes widened in sheer horror as the situation suddenly became clear to me! My knees weakened a bit. I felt dizzy. I could see my cell door now. We stopped. The door slid open, like a giant monster opening its jaws for me to disappear into. I knew this was my cue to step into the isolation of my cell, but I didn't move. The curators gave me a small nudge, clearly getting anxious. Still I resisted their efforts and remained were I was.

The curators heaved me in the direction of the open doorway, but I resisted against their efforts and pressed my bare feet into the tile floor, refusing to budge.

"Stop fighting us, Number 17!" A male curator growled into my ear as he and the others continued to shove against me.

"No!" I cried, trying to pull my arms out of their hands. "Not until you tell me what your going to do with Lucy! Why are you sending Number 35 after her? Tell me. Now!"

Just then the guard bashed the butt of his gun into the back of my neck. It knocked the wind out of me and I lost my balance. Seeing their opportunity, the curators threw me into my holding cell. I landed on the hard floor with a small grunt. I turned my head quickly; but the door slammed shut and the curators stood there, gazing at me from behind the tiny glass window. I stood and put my face to the glass. I saw my breath leave a fog on the cold glass. I panned my gaze across the faces of my curators, fixating my flaming eyes into each one of theirs'. After several moments of dead silence, I finally spoke.

"You're going to kill her, aren't you?"

The curators never moved. They backed away from the door, staring at me with those blank, emotionless faces. They all suddenly took off together down the hall, leaving only the guard standing there. I shot him a cold, knowing stare and he too slowly backed away down the hall. Once everyone was out of my sight, I lost it. I walked in circles around my cell, screaming and pulling at my hair and my horns until my scalp bled! There was nothing. Nothing I could do for Lucy! Her life was in danger out there and I was stuck in here held back by chains, guns and metal walls! It was inhumanly unjust! My frustration reached its peak and I kicked the door, screaming my anguish at the top of my voice. My knees suddenly became weak, gave out, and I sat there kneeling on the floor, feeling the tears begin to form in my eyes. My entire body shook like a frail leaf in a thunderstorm, and my sobs came in watery waves out of the depths of my soul. I had never been so afraid in my life! I sat on my feet and hugged my shoulders as I began rocking myself back and forth, trying my best to calm my hysterical body.

This wasn't happening! This wasn't happening! They couldn't be plotting to kill Lucy! They've let her live this long, why kill her now? I gasped for breath and felt the sobs choke me. Because people had seen her, that's why! People had seen her and they know us diclonius exist now…and that's not what the curators want! They want us to stay hidden, stay isolated from humanity, stay monsters! I continued to rock myself. I continued to shake. I continued to sob for the thousandth time in my miserable life. I threw my tear-soaked face to the ceiling and screamed, not shouted, screamed!

"Lucy!" I screamed in anguish. "Please! Forget everything I said about not putting up a fight! Fight back! Kill as many people as necessary, I don't care! Just as long as you're safe! Please, Lucy just come home! Can't you see I need you?" For a moment I fooled myself into believing she was actually listening to me. "Don't you know that you're the only one who has ever cared for me? Don't you _see_ how I am without you? Please, I _need _for you to come home!" I rocked myself faster and my pleas became louder…and I cried harder. "Fight back! Fight back! Please! I need you, Lucy! I need you! I need you!"

I sat there, sobbing for an endlessly long time.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11: Coldness & Warmth

_Bang! _The muted sound of a gunshot echoed in my head_. _I awoke with a jolt and a gasp escaped my lips. I was laying on my side curled up in my usual ball. I had fallen asleep late last night, the tears had drained the energy from me. I quickly sat up and looked around me. Everything was quiet and still. It was still early morning. Were had that gunshot come from? My dreams? No, I hadn't dreamed at all last night. I had gotten almost no sleep, instead I tossed and turned on the hard floor all night. I had been thinking about Lucy, and my heart had never stopped pounding! My cell seemed colder than usual this morning, so I pulled my knees up to my chin to stay warm. What time was it? I had never seen the facility this quiet before. I closed my eyes, still heavy with sleep.

"Its so cold!" I thought, rubbing my hands together.

In my ten years at the facility, I had known coldness. Every year I felt the cold drafts seep in from the ceiling every winter. My bare body touched the ice-cold tiles of my cell every day. My arms were seized by the freezing hands of the curators every morning. Then my wrists would be placed in the frosty grips of the cuffs in the wall and I would feel the chill of the metal ball as it collided with my skin. Yes. I had known coldness. But this coldness was like none I had ever felt before. It froze my insides, right through to my core, making my body tremble and my teeth chatter. It was like my soul was cold.

"If Lucy were here, I would be warm." I thought with a frown.

I remembered warmth. I remembered how warm I felt sitting next to Lucy all those weeks ago, letting her body heat warm my skin. I remembered how warm my heart felt as I listened to Lucy's tales of Kohta and Lillium. I remembered the wave of calm warmth that would come over my heart whenever I would think about seeing Lucy again. I remembered even further back, to my days of warmth and comfort at the orphanage. I remembered, sort of, the way a bed felt. How soft the pillows were. How cozy the blankets felt upon your skin as you drifted off to sleep. I remembered the warm embrace of others, their soft arms covering my shoulders. Warming me. Protecting me. _Wanting_ me!

I opened my eyes slowly. Wow. In these past several weeks I had completely forgotten about how life outside the facility was! My life had become so miserable and painful without Lucy that I had forgotten that there was a whole other world beyond the stone walls of this place! But why had I suddenly become so miserable when Lucy left? I had been fine all the ten years I had been here. I had hated everything to do with this place, but I was still able to cope with the unhappiness I felt. Everything in my world had gone back to normal after Lucy left, but now I couldn't seem to bare the unhappiness anymore. Why? Why had I suddenly become so unhappy with the life I had lived out for ten years? I was used to it. That's why. That life was the only life I had known for years. Then I met Lucy, and everything had changed! I was shown love, compassion, understanding, everything that I had had in the orphanage. I was reminded of the life I once had, a life I had forgotten a long time ago.

So when my time with Lucy ended and I returned to the life I had grown accustomed to, I remembered the life I had once had, and everything seemed so much worse by comparison! That's why. That's why. … Gah! How could I be so selfish? All this time I had been begging Lucy to come back, back to this life of suffering and pain, just so _I_ could be happy again! I closed my eyes again, guilt filling me like a cup. I laid back down, attempting to go back to sleep.

"Lucy," I said in my thoughts. "on second thought, I don't want you to come home. You _are_ home! You're free! And I _don't_ want you to return to this awful life here, I want you to return to the life you _had_! Go on, forget me. I won't mind. Forget everything about this place, then you'll be happy! And the only thing I want is for you to be happy!"

I smiled as I began to drift back into sleep, and just before I blacked out…I could have sworn I heard a familiar voice whisper;

"_I will."_


	12. Chapter 12 Pt 1

**What's This?! A TWO-Part Climax?! I Guess So. Yeah, This Chapter Took Up Nine Pages On Word. So I've Decided To Turn The Climax Into A Two-Parter. Enjoy!**

Chapter 12: It's All Over

The loud shriek of the horn came later in the morning, just as it always had. I sat up and stretched my limbs out. A strange sensation had filled me last night; and it was still there, fluttering in the pit of my chest. It was a strange feeling but I knew already what it was…release. I had finally let Lucy go. She was free now. Free to spread her wings and fly in the endless world out there! I knew that I was suffering not just for me now, but for both of us! I knew that I was now carrying Lucy's past burdens for her, so that she may have peace. I didn't mind. Not at all. Because I knew that if I was suffering…she was happy, and really that's all I wanted. After all, what are friends for?

I sighed a contented sigh, the first I had had in a very long time, and smiled. I sat and waited. Waited for the curators to come in and take me away. I was ready for it. An hour passed. Nobody came. In fact, nobody moved. The hallway outside my door was just as still and quiet as it had been last night. Was it still early morning? It couldn't be, the horn had sounded. The more I thought of it, the more I realized that the facility had been unnaturally quiet since Number 35 had been released. Was everyone still on the upper levels like the intercom had commanded?

I walked cautiously to the door. The air was so thick with silence it choked me. I peered out the little window out into the hallway. The artificial light from above bathed the white-washed walls in a bleached glow. I looked to the right. No one in sight. I looked to the left. Still no one. Suddenly I heard hushed voices on my right side. I turned my head and saw my curators coming around a corner. I turned quickly, sprinted back to the middle of the room and sat down again, as if I had been there all along.

The door hissed open, revealing the curators and a guard. I turned my head and let the pellet strike me in the arm. The curators calmly walked over, seized my arms, and pulled me to my feet. The regular routine. I turned my body towards the door, but instead I was turned around and forcibly dragged towards a wall of my cell. My eyes grew wide as I saw a lady curator slide open a hidden panel in the wall, revealing a tiny keyboard. She quickly typed in some sort of code and the panel closed. I gasped as a larger section of wall opened up, revealing several large wall cuffs arranged in the distorted outline of a human body. I cried out in fear and pulled away, but I only got another pellet to the arm. The curators all pushed me back until my backside was against the wall. My arms were forced high over my head; then my hands, wrists, elbows, and shoulders were clutched by the four cuffs meant for the arms. My thighs, knees, ankles, and feet were seized by the four cuffs meant for the legs.

The curators pushed me harder against the wall. A large cuff snapped itself shut around my skinny waist, and I let out a choking cough as a cuff closed firmly around my neck. The final cuff closed around my forehead, and I found myself rendered completely immobile. What were they going to do to me? Would they terminate me?! I gave a frightened look to my curators, who never even stirred their emotionless faces.

"We're sorry, Number 17." One of them said. "You've been officially classified as a dangerous diclonius, and dangerous diclonius must be kept in their cells at all times."

"Dangerous diclonius?" I asked. "Like Lucy is?" The curators nodded. "But what did I ever do to suggest that I was dangerous?!" I asked, heart pounding with fear.

The curators looked at each other with blank eyes. I followed their gazes, one-by-one, to each and every person standing there. Finally a curator turned to me and cleared his throat.

"You were going to find out about this sooner or later, Number 17." He said. "That's why it was decided to restrain you permanently _before_ you heard it."

"Permanently?!" I cried. "For what? I haven't done anything!"

"True." Another said. "But we didn't want to take any chances with you. We knew you would be upset by the news."

"What news?!" I cried, squirming in my permanent restraints.

The room was quiet for what seemed like an eternity, the only sound I heard was my own pounding heart. Finally, another curator spoke up.

"Number 35 was successful in locating Lucy yesterday." He said, a hint of fear in his voice. "There was a battle, all of our men got involved…and…Professor Kurama and Number 35 are dead."

"Yes!" I thought, feeling the dark cloud of fear and worry drift off my shoulders. "She's killed them! It's all over! There's no one hunting her now. She's finally free!"

"But…" The curator continued. The grin that had formed on my lips faded. The curator hesitated. "….so is Lucy."

My heart skipped a beat and it was as if time slowed to a stop. I stood there; arms held high over my head, legs stiff and numb, deep pink eyes staring into a silent void. In a violent wave my whole body went numb. A cold sweat formed on my brow, and my heart quivered rather than beat. Lucy? … Gone? I gulped slowly. Dead?! No. No, it couldn't be true! It just couldn't be true! She had killed the Professor _and_ Number 35! She…She was free now! She couldn't be dead!

"Number 17?" A curator's voice snapped me out of my numb shock, but my eyes remained fixed in a shocked stare.

"You're lying." I mumbled under my breath.

"Beg pardon?"

"You're lying!" I said it, louder and louder until I was screaming at them. "You're lying! You're lying!"

"I wish we were." A curator lied.

"No!" I cried, fighting to break free of the cuffs. "No! No, I won't believe it! You're all lying! Lucy is free, you hear me?! She's free!"

"She apparently didn't want that freedom." A curator said flatly. "She freely gave herself up to our men. They shot her down in the streets."

"I refuse to believe it!" I screamed, still pulling at the cuffs. "Until I see proof, I won't believe it!"

A curator stepped forward to the front of the group. I watched as he reached into his pocket. When his hand emerged, he held a dull white object in his hands. I gazed at the object enclosed in his fist, but could not for the life of me figure out what it was. Then the curator opened his hand and in his palm there sat…a diclonius horn! Blood soaked its cracked base, and a large dent in it indicated a bullet had struck it. My eyes grew wide as suddenly I realized all of the curators' words were true!

"Lucy!" I screamed as I stared at my friend's severed horn. I watched in disbelief as the curator dropped Lucy's horn at my feet.

"There's your proof." He said gruffly and stepped back into the group.

I stared at the curators with hurt in my eyes, and they stared back at me with dull despise in theirs'. I felt my eyes wheal up with tears. No. I wouldn't cry. My life had been filled with too many tears and was beginning to overflow with them. I wouldn't cry!

"She can't be dead!" I whispered, so soft I was surprised that they heard me.

"She _is _dead, Number 17." A curator said. "There's nothing you can do to change that fact. I'm sorry."

With that, the curators turned around and walked casually out the door, never once looking back at me. Just after the door closed, a few turned back to me and said; "Good night, Number 17" then walked away. I was left just standing there, all alone. I couldn't move, but Lucy's horn had landed just in front of my feet. I knew. I could touch it with the tips of my toes.

"I won't cry." I thought to myself, squeezing my eyes shut. "I won't cry. I won't cry."

But my sadness was too great for me to contain. I opened my eyes and the river of tears that had been trapped behind my eyelids flowed down my cheeks. With just three words my whole world had been shattered: "Lucy is dead". The feathery feeling of release in my chest turned into lead and fell into my gut, and a dark cloud engulfed my heart as I realized…I was all alone again. My one and only friend was dead! Gone forever from my life! And since I was considered a 'dangerous diclonius' now, I would never even see the outside of my cell again! I would be locked up in these painful cuffs until I shriveled up and died.

I stroked Lucy's horn with my toe tips. Lucy! Oh, Lucy! I could only imagine how she must have felt in her last moments, gazing down the barrels of the men's guns, waiting for the bullets to come and end it all for her. Is that how bad she was hurting? Something must have happened in the town. Something _I'll _never know, but something that _she_ will never forget.

"Lucy," I said as I stroked the horn laying at my feet with my toes. "I…I never knew. I never knew just how much you were hurting. I never knew. If you had told me about it, I would've helped you. I would've comforted you and counseled you, just as you did for me. Then you never would've left, would you? And you wouldn't be….oh Lucy! You were so good to me, Lucy! You were my friend, but I never got to return the favor of all you did for me! … I'm sorry!"

Suddenly a voice rang out in my head, like a voice you hear in a dream:

_"You really don't know what you're capable of. You have great powers inside you, just as I do."_

My tear-filled eyes widened. Was Lucy telling the truth? Did I really have great powers equal to hers hidden inside my frail body? I tried to manifest my vectors, but the cuts in my arm from the pellet gun prohibited me from doing so. I sighed. There was no way Lucy's words were true. I was only a fifteen-year-old diclonius girl locked away forever in her cell. I hadn't even killed anyone in my life. What 'great powers' could I possibly posses?

"_Don't worry. One day you'll wake up and you won't be afraid to kill anymore."_

Lucy's words echoed in my head, as if she were still here whispering them in my ear. What did she mean by that? That one day I would open my eyes and all my cowardice would just disappear? No, not for me. I've been this way all my life. An obedient, quiet freak of nature that everyone in the world hates just because I was born with horns growing out of my skull. Who would have ever known that it would be this obedience that would lead me to meet Lucy? To just let the curators lead me down the hall to the room were Lucy was? Funny how life works that way. But who would ever guess that it would be that same obedience and cowardice that would restrain me from seeing Lucy again.

I gasped. Yes, I finally understood! If I had only been more defiant, or braver about lashing out than I had been, I could've escaped as well! I could have followed Lucy out into the town, then we both would have been free…together. I closed my eyes and bit my lip, holding back the tears.

Suddenly a reel of images flashed behind my eyelids. Images of the curators. They threw me into my cell. They cuffed me to the wall and fired a metal ball into my head. They fed me mush for breakfast every day. They stripped me of my clothes and replaced my name with a number! They took away my life and now they have taken away my only friend!

I grimaced. No. It wasn't my fault that I was a brittle coward…it was _their_ fault! The curators! They had broken me. They had made me weak and submissive by abusing me and filling me with fear when I was young, until I became naturally afraid of them. It was because of this instilled fear that I had done everything they told me to do all these years. It was _their_ fault I hadn't done anything! They had made me _afraid_ to do anything!

I opened my eyes and suddenly, a burning rage ignited in me, burning away every sorrow, every heaviness that resided in my soul and replacing it with pure, unbridled hate! Hate for the curators, hate for the scientists, hate for the guards, hate for everyone who had abused me and called me a freak. Hate…for humans!

With one swift, elegant movement; my vectors shot from my back and sliced through the thick metal cuffs, letting me drop to my knees on the floor. The cuffs lay around me like bodies scattered by some great disaster. I watched the invisible hands I called vectors loom high over my head like ghosts hanging in the air. No one besides myself and other diclonius could see these vectors, which was perfect for me right now.

**Go To Next Chapter For Part 2!**


	13. Chapter 12 Pt 2

Chapter 12: Its All Over Pt. 2

I stood and looked at the door. I knew that there was no turning back from what I was about to do…but I really didn't care! I wouldn't be afraid to kill anymore…I won't be afraid to kill anymore…I'm _not_ afraid to kill anymore! I watched as my vectors extended out in front of me, hitting the door with so much force it went flying off its titanium hinges. As soon as the door flew out into the hallway an alarm sounded. That was my cue to run! I sprinted through the door as fast as I could on my skinny legs. I rounded a blind corner and into another hallway. I stopped behind the corner and waited. The intercom popped to life and said over the noise of the alarm:

"All staff evacuate immediately! All staff evacuate immediately! This is NOT a drill! The underground research lab has been breached! I repeat! The underground research lab has been breached!"

Familiar words. From a distance I heard doors slamming and voices shouting, followed by the familiar heavy footsteps of the guard coming…closer…closer. A thin smile crossed over my lips. My pulse pounded. My senses tingled. The guard. The man who pressed a machine gun to my back every day, the man who had called me a 'horned freak', the man who threatened to blast my face off at the first sign of defiance. … This was going to be fun! I slowly stepped out from behind the corner. The guard stood there at the door of my cell, puzzling over how I could've escaped. He saw me out of the corner of his eye and turned, gun drawn.

"Freeze, you horned fre-!" I never let him finish the insult.

In the blink of an eye I ripped apart his body, letting his intestines spill out onto the floor. I took a moment to gaze down at my first victim: the twisted, unrecognizable body at my feet. My clear vectors were outlined and dripping with his blood. I had never felt so alive! I smiled cruelly at the sight of the blood smearing the walls, the sight of my enemy laying defeated at my feet. The feeling of power surged through my veins. I was in control! I was all powerful! I…was a god, and this god was out for vengeance! I turned on my heels and bounded down the other hallway, laughing to myself. The dark hallway was abandoned, or so it seemed. I was halfway down the hallway when a door swung open and out stepped a woman in a white coat, a familiar white coat, a familiar face. This was one of my curators! She saw me immediately and jumped back, dropping the cup of tea she held in her hand.

She seemed too sacred to run. She only slunk back into the room but I followed, backing her up into the room, staring her down with malice in my eyes. As the curator backed further into the room, she kept her fearful eyes fixated on my blood-soaked vectors raised over my head, poised to kill. I almost laughed out loud at her fear, the fear that I was taking so much pleasure out of causing. The curator finally reached the back wall of the room. Nowhere to go. Nowhere to hide. I had her cornered! The curator felt with her hand around the wall, searching for some means of escape or something to hide behind, but to no avail. She sank to the floor and put her arms up in front of her for protection. I smiled maliciously at her and raised my vectors for the kill. She squeezed her eyes shut.

"Stop where you are, Number 17!" A voice demanded from behind.

With a growl, I turned my head and saw a thick group of guards barricading the doorway of the room with their guns drawn. The rest of my curators stood to the side and peered into the room cautiously. One of my curators, a man, called out to the one I held hostage.

"Izumi!" He cried, reaching for the woman curator, but the guards held him back.

"Stay back, Hiro!" I heard the woman curator say, though I kept my eyes on the guards. How odd it was to hear my torturers' names.

"Release the girl, Number 17!" The guards ordered me. "You have five seconds to comply before we shoot!"

I glanced back at the woman curator. She looked up at me, her eyes wide with terror, arms still held protectively in front of herself. I just looked down on her blankly, my face never showing emotion.

"Three seconds, Number 17! Release the girl NOW!"

My cold eyes never left the woman. Her frightened eyes never left me. Her eyes pleaded me to let her go, to let her live. I recognized that look. It was the look I had carried on my face for ten years. The woman's eyes bled out a tear as they saw me smile maniacally and heard me whisper; "Looks like the tables have turned!" And then those eyes were gone, vanished under a spray of blood. I heard the male curator scream in agony and I heard the click of gun triggers. I turned around to face the hail of bullets, unafraid of death. I saw several flashes of light and heard the guns go off in random bursts of sound…but I felt no pain. I was confused for a split second, then I saw what was happening. I gasped as I saw the bullets that flew at me freeze just before they hit me and then hang there in midair. I couldn't believe it! I…I could stop bullets! Lucy really _had _been telling the truth! I swelled with pride as I realized that I really did have great powers like hers!

I continued to stand there and watch the bullets freeze in time before my eyes until the gunfire stopped. The guards were finally out of bullets. I could hardly see them through the cloud of bullets in front of me, but I could hear them murmuring to each other in the doorway. I relaxed and let the bullets fall to the ground, perfectly unharmed. The guards and my remaining curators went silent and stared at me with panic in their eyes. I looked over the group before me with a crooked smile, up one side, then down the other. Then, with a mighty battle cry, I leapt forward and attacked. The terrorized screams of my enemies were over within seconds, and when it was over I stood there in the middle of the hall, smearing their blood under my feet. I inhaled deeply and sighed contently. It was done. The curators, the people who had caused all my suffering for ten long years, now lay in bloody heaps on the floor. I had no reason to keep going, but I knew what Lucy did when she escaped. She took out everyone she could, whether she knew them or not, because of her hatred towards all humans…for they had all wronged her. Now I had that hatred, and now I was on the same mission.

"I'll slaughter them all." I whispered to myself. "I'll slaughter every wretched person in this whole vile building! That's what Lucy wanted. To destroy them all. Heaven knows she can't do it now, so I'll just have to do it for her!"

Then I went on an all out killing spree! I tore down through the hallways, slashing out any human I came across. Any curator who made the mistake of roaming the halls, I ripped them in half. Any guard who dared to fire a gun at me, I caught the bullets in my force field then sent them flying back at them. Worked better then the guns. I had just put holes in a new guard, when I saw the scientists he was assisting disappear into a wall! I was stunned. How could they walk through walls? As I drew closer, I saw that the wall had an odd portion that was different from the rest. Beside the strange wall was a small panel with a button on it. Curiosity took over and I pressed the button. The button lit up, and the odd portion of wall opened up to reveal a tiny room. An elevator. I had heard the curators speak of them before, but I never thought that I would actually ever see one.

I stepped inside the tiny room and the doors slid shut behind me. There was only a single button on the wall inside the elevator, it read: 'To Upper Level'. I smiled knowingly. I pushed the button and I felt myself become weightless as the elevator rocketed upwards. It felt like I was floating, but then the elevator stopped abruptly and I became heavy again. There was a click, and the elevator doors began to open…but the moment the doors spread apart, I was met with a violent raid of bullets! Thinking quickly, I put up my force-field and caught the bullets as they came. The gunfire ceased. I pushed back the thick veil of bullets hovering in front of me and saw that I had a welcoming committee. At least two dozen guards, several dozen curators, and the remaining few scientists stood there before me, staring.

The bullets fell like rain to my feet. I stood eye-locked with the opposing side. I had never seen so many people in one room together, and all of them wishing to hurt me. I felt a small pang as my stomach twisted into a knot. My emotionless face stood firm, but behind it was a feeling of immense horror. I _had_ feared for my life before, but I had never encountered a feeling of fright such as this before! A tightness formed in my chest as I realized that if one of those guns could just spit a bullet at me the right way, I could drop dead right there in the elevator! I was intimidated by the crowd. All the hate-filled eyes looking at me, all the guns ready to fire at my first wrong move. I felt small and beaten just by the threat they posed. For a moment, I actually considered surrendering.

"I've done too much." I said to myself. "I'm a dangerous diclonius now…I've killed. If I give myself up, they won't take me back to my cell after all I've done…they'll kill me anyway." The rush of adrenalin began to fade, and I felt weak. "I'm so tired." I continued in my head. "If I even _try_ to take on these people, I won't be fast enough to dodge their bullets. Fine, I'll face it. I'm beaten."

Just as I moved to raise my hands in surrender, I realized. I was giving up! Giving up on my mission, giving up on Lucy! What for? Because I was _tired_? Because there were _too many_? Because I was _afraid_? How pathetic. Lucy must have been exhausted by the time she escaped, she must've been fearful of her life sometimes, there must have been huge swarms of guards blocking her path, but she never gave up! She took them all out! She was strong, and I had to be too to fulfill her wish! Lucy had given herself up in the end, but _I_ was not about to! I clenched my fists and looked up at one of the guards, a smirk on my face.

"What are you waiting for?" I asked sarcastically. "Aren't you going to shoot me? Go ahead. I'm waiting."

The guns clicked, but there were no bullets. A look of shock came over the entire crowd and they all slowly looked back to me. They had no ammo, and that was my cue. Rage pushed back fatigue and excitement swept over me as I realized that these were the last ones! The last of the people alive in this building in one place! Escape for them was hopeless, they couldn't open the doors. The entire facility was on lock down, and it would remain so until I was dead. But with no ammo left in the guns, that was not likely to happen. All I had to do was slash my way through the rest of these people, and I was free!

With a cry like a mighty warrior, I reached out my vectors with such speed that no one had time to react; and instantly three dead guards fell to the ground. At the sight of blood a woman in the crowd panicked and fled down the hallway screaming, followed by several others desperate for escape. They never got far. I lifted myself into the air on my vectors, balancing on air, and levitated over the scattering crowd. As I quickly lowered myself, my vectors shot out down the hallway leading to the front door and made quick work of the fleeing people. As I turned, my vectors reached gracefully around my body and seized the heart of a nearby curator; tearing it from his body with such skill and grace it looked like a work of art.

Then the screams started, screams of terror from my doomed victims, and they filled my sadistic excitement of the kill to the brim; to the point were I was practically sweating this twisted thrill. The panicked crowd scattered in a frenzy to escape. Some foolish people ran down hallways, but I stopped them easily. The remaining majority packed into the elevator, but they were not to get away so easily. I took the sliding doors in my powerful vectors and ripped them off the wall, jamming the elevator were it was. The remainders huddled together in the elevator, no escape route in sight. Near the front, a man held a women in his arms, and she held him in hers. This caught my attention, as I had never seen anyone perform this gesture.

I didn't have much time to analyze them though, because after letting their lips touch the man and the woman made a very foolish move. They took off hand-in-hand out of the elevator and attempted to pass me in an effort to reach the entrance hallway. As they passed me, all I simply had to do was swing my vectors around my side and the deed was done. The man, who led the woman, felt my vectors first and fell instantly. I felt his blood splatter onto my arm. The woman, who was behind him, collapsed with a shriek as her stomach was sliced by my vectors. Not a deep cut. I had failed to make the wound fatal.

I looked over my shoulder and raised my vectors, visible now in the blood, for the final blow. The woman lay beside the man, still alive but bleeding fast. She stroked his face tenderly, and tears washed the blood from her face in thin streaks. The woman saw my poised vectors and held out a defensive hand.

"No!" She said weakly. "Please don't! My husband and I…we…we have children at home!"

"All the better!" I said with a laugh. "Maybe now your orphan children will know the feelings of the people you tortured in life!"

I struck the woman like a cobra, and she fell back onto the man. I turned back to the elevator, but I gasped when I saw the last few of the remainders dashing around the corner. No! I would not let them escape! I burst into a sprint, realizing I was much faster on my feet than I thought I was. I chased my prey down that hallway like a hungry lion eager to kill. The hallway twisted and turned, but I could still hear the people's voices just up ahead. Suddenly I slipped around a corner and came face-to-face with the remainders, who huddled against the wall of a dead end. Finally the hallway had ended, leaving my prey trapped like rodents.

There were eight, maybe ten people remaining in the group. Kill them, and mine and Lucy's vengeance would finally be complete! I smiled sadistically at the thought of what I intended to do to these awful people…I was going to enjoy this! I would slaughter them all! Every last miserable one of them! I had finally discovered the great powers I had within me. Powers that I had never known I possessed before! Powers…like Lucy's. I would not let Lucy down! I would unleash all these powers and _more_ on these people, the people who had made our lives so miserable! I stood on my toes and raised my vectors to the ceiling, ready for the grand finale!

"I'll make you proud, Lucy!" I said out loud, declaring it in the air around me.

Suddenly, a familiar voice echoed in my head again:

"_Promise me one thing….promise me that you will never use those powers the way I have. Promise me!"_

I. Froze.

Disbelief. That's the only thing I felt in that moment. Disbelief.

I stood in silent shock, transfixed by the awful realization I had just come to. My hands slowly came up to cover my face. What had I done? Oh Lords of Heaven, what had I done? How could I have forgotten? How could I have forgotten about my promise to Lucy? How could I forget something so important? But now it was too late…the damage was done…I had broken the only promise I had made to my best friend…my _deceased_ best friend! I had betrayed her trust…and I could never undo it! I sank my fingernails into my forehead, almost clawing my own face. I will never be able to tell you just what I felt in that moment, but I can tell you that it was the worst mixture of all the negative human emotions imaginable! Anger, guilt, regret, sorrow, frustration, hopelessness, denial, fear. All clouded together in a poisonous black mist that seeped into my skin, my eyes, my breath, my hair; until at long, long last…it engulfed all that was left of my being.

All at once a deep depression came over me like a shackle. With just one breath all meaning left my life, all hope was gone, all joy vanished; and my heart turned to ash and blew away, with no chance of ever being repaired, leaving nothing…nothing but emptiness. I broke down and sobbed right there in front of my victims, but I had never sobbed like this before. Screams that didn't even seem mine escaped my lips and echoed through the empty building, screams of torture. My body jolted with the sheer power of the sobs exploding from my frail form. It was useless trying to hold tears back, they poured in waves out of my eyelids and streamed down my bare body. Still lurching with sobs, I squeezed my eyes shut and bit my lip so hard that it bled.

"Enough!" I screamed inside my head. "Enough already! I've cried too much! Too much, and I won't do it again!" I stopped and I let myself calm down a bit, but the tears still came freely. "Why can't it all just be over?" I asked myself. "I'm so tired of all this suffering! For ten long years my life as been nothing but pain, yet everyday there was just something there to pull me through to the next day. Honestly…I think its because I was destined to meet Lucy! Yes, that must be it! Lucy was always the thing that kept me going, even before we met! We were destined to meet, to become friends. She was _meant_ to let me discover these powers, but she warned me…never to…never to…Lucy, I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"

I opened my eyes and I saw that my victims were staring at me, waiting for me to finish them off. But why should I now? I did this all for Lucy, so she could get her vengeance. I had tried to do everything exactly as she would've done, but in doing so, I had broken my promise to her. What was the point of being free now? What was the point of getting revenge? I was unworthy to do so now. I was empty now. I was nothing. I was useless. Then I remembered: useless diclonius are terminated.

I looked at my victims, my hate for humans still gleaming in my reddish-pink eyes. I had remained standing in one place my entire episode, but now I took a few steps forward. My victims flinched as I drew closer, but I wanted them to have a front row seat for this. I kept my tear-soaked eyes down, hiding them under my pink bangs. I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. My vectors came down from the ceiling. One gently grabbed a handful of my hair and held it firmly. The other laid flat and positioned itself next to my neck. I knew what would happen. I knew that my blood would coat the people in front of me. I knew that my vectors would remain for a bit longer after it was over, proudly displaying my head for my enemies to see for a few short seconds. … If I was to be terminated, I would at least have the dignity to do it myself.

I licked my dry lips, tasting the salt of my tears on my tongue. They say your life flashes before your eyes before you die. I don't know if mine did or not, because all I saw was blank white walls and cold tile floors. My victims kept their eyes fixated on me, fearing my unknown next move. I glared at them from behind my bangs. They would replay this moment through their heads for the rest of their miserable lives…I would be sure of that!

"You say I'm a monster." I said to them in a voice that tried to sound strong but only wavered with tears. "You say I'm a mutant. You say I'm not human…but I will _always _see you people as the inhumane, bloodthirsty monsters you see me as! The torture you put me through, you will never understand! But know this…whenever you remember my face, you will be reminded of the pain you saw in my eyes…and you will do something that you have never done before…you will care!"

I raised my face to my horrified onlookers, making sure they all got a good look at who I was.

"And you will know…"

Images of past moments shared with Lucy passed by my eyes, followed by moments spent in my days at the orphanage. The days when I had a name. A tear fell from my eye, but I never knew if it was a tear of pain…or of relief.

"…that my name is…"

The tear fell from my eye and to the floor. The vector fastened its grip on my hair.

"…Xionkowa!"

I felt the vector at my neck make sudden contact with my skin. There was a quick, sharp pain. I never heard my horrified onlookers scream as my scarlet blood painted them like a canvas. I never felt my body fall to the cold floor. I was unaware as I lay there on my back in a growing pool of blood. I never saw my vectors dissolve forever. I never witnessed my head fall from their grasp. I never felt my broken body lay there, motionless, with my head laying a few feet away. My shocked face stared wide-eyed up at the ceiling, but I never felt the tears that were still leaking from it. I never felt any of this. By now I had left. I wasn't there anymore. Finally…it was over.

It was all over.


	14. Epilouge

Epilogue

The warm summer breeze caressed my face and tossed my thin black hair about my bright, youthful face. My crystal-clear blue eyes were wide and shining, and on my body I wore a bright yellow sundress that danced like my hair in the breeze. I stood, my bare feet touching the moist earth as I gently picked flowers from their bed and fitted them into a small bouquet. Mother and Father sat a few feet away, enjoying our picnic lunch on a checkered blanket. The garden we had chosen to picnic in was alive with the sweet perfumes of flowers and bursting with the wonderful colors of every plant imaginable. Cherry trees, blooming with their bright pink flowers, let loose a soft shower of petals with every gust of wind. Patches of daffodils sat peacefully behind small stone borders that separated them from the stone pathways that ran through the garden. Several other types of flowers budded beside the daffodils; lilies, African violets, morning glories, snapdragons, and sunflowers all lined the paths of the garden. Other small trees and shrubs decorated the rest of the garden; honeysuckles, ferns, hedges, as well as palm and crabapple trees.

As I reached to pluck a daffodil, my fingers brushed cold, mossy stone. I pushed back the flowers, and I realized that these stones were a garden path I had not noticed before. The path was almost hidden behind several cherry trees and ferns, but I could still make out the cobblestone path that lay behind them. I don't know why, but an irresistible curiosity to know what was down that path came over me, and I knew I just had to find out! I dropped the bouquet, letting the pretty flowers fall helter-skelter to the dirt, and began pushing back the branches that hid the path.

"Suzume?" I head my mother call. "Where are you going?"

"There's a path back here, Mommy!" I said with excitement. "I want to see were it leads!"

"Alright." I heard my father say. "But don't go too far, we need to get home before it starts getting dark." I knew my parents would not worry about me this time, we were the only people in the garden this late in the day.

"I won't be long!" I said with a smile, revealing a gap were a baby tooth had been. "I promise!"

With a quick wave goodbye to my parents, I ducked under the shrubs and began my walk down the long path. This was so exciting! This is the kind of stuff a five-year-old child like me only heard of in storybooks! I was headed out on my own little adventure! I wondered what kinds of secrets might be hidden at the end of this path. Oh, I just _had _to find out!

After a while; the path began to slope, and gradually rose into a hill. My fast-paced stride slowed as I fought gravity to make it up the steep slope, but finally, up ahead, I saw the curve of the top of the hill! I looked back, I could not even see my parents now. I hadn't realized just how far I had traveled from them. Remembering my father's words, I turned to go back…but the moment I turned my back, a sudden feeling washed over me. It was like…a soft tingling all over, and for whatever reason…it felt familiar. I turned back to the hilltop. Something was up there. I didn't know how I knew that…but I did. Slowly, softly, I made my way up the last stretch of pathway. Step. By. Step. I came to the last curve in the path. Cautiously, I tip-toed around the corner, almost afraid of what I might find.

Imagine my surprise as I rounded the corner, and saw not a treasure nor a secret waiting for me at the end of the path…but two young girls about my age sitting next to each other on a stone bench under an old maple tree. I had never seen these girls before, and I had half a mind to turn around and run back down the path…but I stayed, watching them. They didn't seem to notice me; they just sat there, watching the setting sun.

"Hello?" I piped up, and I jumped a bit as both girls swung their heads around to see me at once.

Two of the same face stared back at me. Two of the same reddish-pink eyes. Two of the same pink hairstyles. Two of the same red ribbons tied into their hair. The girls were identical twins. Identical, yet so different. One twin had cut her dark pink hair up to her shoulders, while the other twin had let her hair grow out to the middle of her back. One twin had big eyes that sparkled with laughter, but the other twin had eyes that were dull and lifeless. One twin sat slumped over with her arms crossed, while the other twin sat up proud and confidently. Identical, yet so different.

"Hi!" The twin with the longer hair said with a huge grin. Her sister didn't say anything. Just stared coldly at me. "Who are you?"

"My name's Suzume." I said, still a bit shy in front of the strangers. "Who are _you_?"

The girl beamed with such innocence, I almost felt sorry for her. "I'm Lillium." She said, laying a hand on her chest. Then she motioned to the one beside her. "And this is my sister, Kaede."

Suddenly I noticed something about the girls. Something that was so obvious that I was surprised that I hadn't noticed it right away. Protruding from the tops of each girls' head…were pairs of what appeared to be horns! White, boney horns! I took a step back and stared wide-eyed at this strange feature. I clenched my fists and I shook lightly. Those horns gave me a sense of unexplained anger, and I did not like them. Not one little bit. Finally, the twin named Kaede spoke:

"So are you just going to stand there like an idiot or what?"

I was shocked at this girl's tone of voice. I knew I should've been offended, but for some reason I felt…comforted by it. I unclenched my fists. I stood there a moment more, just looking at these two sisters. The strange tingling feeling only increased the more I stood there in their presence; and I got the strangest feeling…like I had met these girls before. Something about them seemed so familiar. I stared into Kaede's cold stare, trying to figure out were I had seen it before. Lillium. Nothing about her really stuck out to me, but there was just something about her, about the both of them, that gave me a nagging feeling of recognition. Finally I cleared my throat and squeaked out:

"So…what are you two doing out here all alone? Are your parents anywhere around?"

"We come up here a lot." Kaede shrugged. "Usually around now."

"We like to watch the sunset!" Lillium giggled. "Plus, you get a good view of the old laboratory from here!"

I perked up. Suddenly compelled by what this girl was saying. "Laboratory?"

"Yeah." Kaede pointed with her thumb. "Over there on the hill on the other side of the lake."

I followed the direction she was pointing and my eyes finally rested on the silhouette of a decrepit, crumpling building standing on a cliff in the distance. A cold sweat formed on my scalp. That place. I had never seen it before. But just the menacing way it stood on that cliff…it was as if it was watching you…waiting. I shivered.

"It looks spooky." I said, walking to a place beside the twin's bench.

"Yeah." Lillium said, shivering as well. "I know."

Kaede slumped further down, bowing her head so her bangs hid her eyes in a shadow. "That place has been abandoned for over nine years." She said in a grim voice. "I hear rumors that some girl killed herself there, then everyone left."

I was surprised when a small smile appeared on my face, but I quickly wiped it off. "What did they study there?"

"People like us…" Lillium said, a tone of sadness appearing in her soft voice.

"…horned girls." Kaede said, a tone of anger rising in her rough voice. "There used to be a lot more of us around…back when the queen was alive."

My eyes turned to Kaede, staring at her as my heart fluttered at the word...

"Queen?" I asked, my heart beginning to pound. "W-What queen?"

"We don't know." Lillium shrugged. "We guess that she was the first horned girl. All we really know is that she, as well as all the other horned girls, were once kept in that laboratory."

My gaze returned to the laboratory, the golden light from the setting sun casting little light on its dark presence. I blinked back hot tears that threatened to fall from my eyes.

"Oh, those poor girls!" I said, surprised at just how strongly I was feeling about all of this. "What happened to them all?"

"Best bet is that after the laboratory closed down, they did away with all of them to prevent more horned babies from being born." Kaede grumbled, slumping down further in her seat.

"But you two have horns." I said, my voice getting quieter as Kaede shot me an icy glare.

"You say it was if we're lucky to have horns." Kaede said, her voice raising a bit. "But we're _not_! You don't know what its like; having everyone avoid you when you go out in public, having every kid at school bully you…to be shunned by your own father!"

I almost nodded in agreement, but I stopped myself after realizing that I had no idea how such things felt…then why had my first instinct been to agree with her that I had?

"Kaede," Lillium piped up, patting her sister's shoulder in an attempt to calm her down. "Remember what Mommy said. We're beautiful to her no matter what we look like!"

Kaede, who's face had been growing redder by the second, sighed and nodded. I couldn't stand to see this girl upset, I felt her pain. So I decided to cheer her up some with my own words.

"_I'm_ not avoiding you." I said, taking a step nearer. "_I'm_ not shooting you dirty looks. _I'm_ not bullying you. Look, I'm not even shunning you!"

Lillium smiled at me sweetly. "You're definantly not like the others." She said softly. "…You're very nice to us! No one is nice to us except for Mommy."

"Thanks." I blushed.

We all were silent for a moment, the only sound around us being the wind dancing through the leaves of the maple tree beside us. Suddenly I remembered my mother and father waiting for me at the bottom of the hill. They were probably wondering where I was by now, and I knew better than to keep my parents waiting.

"I should really get going." I said, turning to leave. "My parents will be worried about me."

"Wait!" I heard Lillium's tiny voice squeak out.

I looked back at the girls, who were both looking at me with pleading eyes, begging me not to leave. I was surprised to see cold Kaede have such a helpless look on her face. She must have read my thoughts, because her pride got the better of her and she looked away. Lillium smiled sweetly at me again and patted on the bench.

"Would you like to sit and watch the sunset with us?" Lillium asked.

I turned to the girls again, contemplating their offer. It was getting awfully late, and mother and father would definantly be worried about me if I didn't show myself soon. But…Kaede and Lillium…it seemed as if they needed me to stay with them. Me. The only other child in the world who had treated them with compassion and understanding. They needed me. That and…for some reason…I felt like I needed them, too.

"Sure!" I said with a grin.

I stepped over to the stone bench. Lillium scooted herself over and made a place for me to sit between her and her sister. Slowly, I took my place between the two sisters. For a second we sat there, letting the breeze play with our hair and twist it into small tangles. I can't explain it, but as I sat there, feeling the twin's presence next to my own, and hearing them breath, and sensing their heartbeats…I felt…complete. Complete. As if somewhere, long ago, I had had some part of me ripped away…but now…I had it back again!

The clouds were a dazzling display of pink, purple, and golden fog mixing together perfectly in the heavens, and just as the sun sank below the horizon and the stars were just becoming visible in the fading sky, I held out my hand to Lillium. She looked at my hand and then up at me, obviously confused. I smiled at her and held my hand out closer to her. Realizing what I wanted her to do, Lillium beamed with excitement and grabbed my hand like her life depended on it. I turned to my other side and offered my hand to Kaede. She glanced at it out of the corner of her eye, then ignored it, shaking her head in pity. I held my hand out closer, but she completely looked away, crossing her arms.

Hurt, I pulled my hand away and looked back at Lillium, who was grasping my hand with such gentle little fingers I almost forgot she was there. Suddenly, I felt cold, clammy fingers wrap themselves around my hand. Startled, I looked to my left and saw Kaede staring in disbelief at her own hand, as if surprised at what she had just done. She slowly looked up at me, her deep pink eyes meeting my dark blue eyes. And suddenly, it was like I had known her my whole life. I smiled at this strange horned girl, and she stared at me. Slowly, though, the corners of her lips pulled themselves up ward, and before she even knew it…she was smiling back at me.

We all turned to watch the sun disappear into the earth, revealing a sparkling canopy of stars above our heads. At that moment, I knew. I don't know how I knew, but I _knew_ that these identical sisters and I would become…friends forever.

**THE END**


End file.
